Cafe Workers

Cafe at Night


Our students have been loving having the cafe and we have really enjoyed the conversations with students. For some reason just entering into the atmosphere of the cafe lets students totally open up about life. Please pray that God would provide another 4 people with a heart for students and the ability to make coffee that would like to invest three hours a week in students.

You speaka Japanesea?

Well I decided after 5 years in country it it time to learn Japanese. Originally when we landed on Okinawa we had all intentions of learning Japanese. After listening to the radio for 10 minutes our first few days here we decided that English and little bit of German were just fine, thank you very much.

In Taiwan I was semi convicted of my language laziness when visiting to set up our missions trip this summer so I began praying about learning Japanese. Then God brought a number of other things my way to confirm he wanted me to learn Japanese.

On Thursday I began working on learning Japanese. Just today our one of our new neighbors was outside playing soccer so I decided to join him. His name is Takishi and we are going to meet once a week to teach each other our native tongues. Should be exciting

-Buddy

Huge Day

Unbelievably huge day for the Rathmells yesterday. Thinking I was 33% of my way towards all three children down for naps, I was shell-shocked to find that 33% walking down the hall at me, smiling as big as she could through her pacifier. Megan had crawled out of her crib. This provided the impetus for the eventual avalanche of problems, and now, after quite the trying day, we have permanently taken the crib out of the house (it will turn into a fort outside for a while thanks to creative daddy) and Megan is currently confined to her pack 'n play, which she cannot yet get out of.

I think I alluded previously on this blog something to the tune of "what am I going to do when #3 is out of the crib!?" Well, that day came like a speeding Japanese Bullet train and smacked me right in the head. She never did take an afternoon nap, crawled out like an expert 6 out of 7 times (the one falling-crying episode only deterred her for about 15 minutes)

The Garden Update: Everything is still somewhat alive. My friend Jen, hereafter referred to as our Gardening Sensei (Japanese for master) came over with a box of Miracle-Gro and work gloves...I believe this was to be an encouragment, but I know these plants sense my apathy. She used all these positive words like "wonderful", "I'm so jealous you have a flower bed", "Great!"...the plants perked up I'm sure to her genuineness...they know loves them.

However, she did mention that what I thought were impatiens (aka, impossible to kill and quite gratifying to grow) were really NOT impatiens, so here's hoping...

We're off to a Staff Conference this week at Okuma, for those of you who know this island...please pray for refreshment in various ways if you think of it. Parenting just kicked up a notch. Need to be praying more.

Jen for us

Shorebreak '05

Also wanted to let you know that Shorebreak, our Spring Break Retreat was great in many ways. Students were strongly challenged as Mark shared only from Romans 12 and introduced and expanded on the idea of living in community with our Lord and each other.

If you are interested in seeing a bit of Shorebreak, we had a video person from AFN (the American Forces Television station here) do a story that ran for one of the mainland communities, Yokosuka Naval Base.

Click on the link: www.cfay.navy.mil and then go to "MEDIA ONLINE". Follow the link to "view the Yokosuka Report" and if you go about 19 minutes and 35 seconds into the video you'll find us. There's a handsome clip of Buddy and others. It will only be there until early this week.

Let us know how you are...lots of love,

Jen

The Gardening Project...oh help us

So...in a moment of weakness, I have created yet another project (I realize now that I am addicted to projects...Masters done...dig up the Garden!) and am taking a break from digging up our little strip of land that should inhabit beautiful flowers, but instead has become a weeds paradise.

Bugs are just not my thing...I like to appear tough, but I have to admit, the very suculent worms and triangle shaped black bugs (they must be a Japanese version of beetles) are a bit too much. And I'm too cheap to buy working gloves because well, with that money, I could buy more flowers to potentially kill.

I feel like I must conquer this...and yet, personally, God has been casting me into humbling situations and I have the sneaky suspicion that I might stepped right into another one. Adrianne has already noticed that every plant in our house is plastic.

She's catching on...stay tuned and please...offer some gardening feedback if you have any...

Friends

Forgot to mention...about a day and a half after being here, my prof says, "You have some great friends here"...and I looked at him and said, "And you haven't even met half of them". He looked at me in the eyes and said, "Most people are not like that". I have reflected on this over and over. Truly, he had not even met most of our friends here on island, and little does he know of those we love so much that live in other places of the world. This has given me such comfort...a particular blessing because there have been some pangs of disappointment lately. Surely, God is the Great Comforter...

Update

Currently just about done recovering from Shorebreak 05 - God did some cool stuff, no surprise there...about 15 kids accepted Christ. It seems that these kids were really called by the Savior, as many of them chose Christ instead of comfort, the approval of their friends and even the quizzical looks of their parents. My professor has been here for the last three days to evaluate my internship for my MS in Counseling. I hesitate to rejoice that it's all done, but the reality is...I think it IS! (You can never be too sure till that little paper is in your hand!) Buddy is with him on a Survivor trip tonight wth some students and Single Soldiers. It has been incredible to have him here...this man walks with God and has challenged us in significant ways. I'll finish since I can't figure out how to make a new paragraph without publishing this, and many of you know my grammar hang-ups. More later...

Shorebreak '05

In about 10 minutes we are leaving for our annual spring break trip to Tokashiki island of the coast of Okinawa. Our speaker, Mark Palmer, did a great job last night building raport with the students and I am excited about his ministry.

Please lift up the students and staff in prayer this week, asking God to be at work drawing the hearts of all to himself and that his spirit would fall on us in a fresh way.

Thanks,

Buddy

Naps? We don't need no stinking naps!

So much for taking naps. We thought they were quiet cuz they were sleeping...instead they were out on the window sill...japanese style. What will we do when number 3 is out of a crib?

Potty Training Complete. Helps when Jack has discovered that peeing is something akin to having a permanent squirt gun. Hello Clorox Wipes.